


Cupcake Wars Hawaiian Style

by psychoroach



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Baking, Cupcake Wars AU, Cupcakes, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 10:53:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16491170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychoroach/pseuds/psychoroach
Summary: Characters from Hawaii 5-0 do Cupcake Wars.





	Cupcake Wars Hawaiian Style

**Author's Note:**

> Read, review, kudos!

Danny felt nervous as he and Grace walked onto the set for Cupcake Wars, looking around in awe at everything. The set looked small and intimate on tv, but in person it seemed very large and intimidating...and very pink. He just hoped they had a good theme for the show and he could get some cupcakes out that the judges would love. "Don't worry, Danno, you got this. We got this." Grace shook him out of his inner musings and he flashed her a smile. 

"Hey, I know we got this, ok? No one bakes as good as we do." Danny hugged the sixteen year old to him, ignoring her minor protestations. 

"Yeah and then after this you can open the franchise you know you want to." Grace pointed out.

He beamed at that. "Yeah, Danno's Authentic Jersey Cupcakes will be all over the state, we'll have kiosks, and those little machines...maybe even one of those 24 hour services..." 

"Oh no you don't." She pointed at him. "If you even think about opening something where I'm delivering cupcakes to high college students at all hours of the night I swear I'll move to Germany to go to college." 

"You don't mean that." He made a face.

"Oh yes I do." She promised. 

Danny got distracted from answering when the second team came in. It was two guys and one of them was probably the most attractive man he'd ever seen. He had the brightest blue eyes and dark hair paired with model good looks. He came in with a massive Samoan dude, who was bald and looked very laid back, but like he could also very much mess your world up if you pissed him off. 

"Danno, you ok?" Grace asked.

Danny blinked and smiled at her. "Yep, just fine." 

"Alright." Grace made a face and looked over as the third team came in. "Wow, that guy's kind of hot in an old guy kind of way." 

Danny looked at the team she was talking about and saw a guy, Hawaiian maybe, with a woman with wavy long, dark hair and dark features. He sputtered. "Old guy? Old guy? He looks younger than I am!" 

"Does he?" Grace asked innocently. 

"I oughtta..." Danny muttered, shooting her a look. 

"Look, fourth team." Grace tried to distract him. Danny looked anyway, over at the two that came in. Both were Asian looking, with the man an indeterminate age where he could be about Danny's age, or even a little older. The woman looked very young and what Danny could only think of as 'beachy'. It made him shudder. 

"Kamekona's Cupcakes." Danny read on the front of the large Samoan guy's shirt. "I wonder who or what Kamekona is." 

"I think it's the dude." Grace offered. 

"Fire by Cupcakes. Who names their cupcake shop that?" Danny read on one of the other guys. "And Ohana's Cupcakes. Oh God they're all Hawaiian." 

"What's wrong with Hawaii?" Grace asked.

"Your mom made me move there until you got old enough to travel on a plane by yourself from there to Jersey." Danny said simply. 

"You can't hold a grudge for a whole state just because you and mom hate each other." Grace pointed out, rolling her eyes.

Danny was stopped from saying something probably far too immature by the production calling out that the show was starting up and that 'one member of each team should line up in front of the judge's desk'. Danny walked up front and noticed the model guy did as well, along with the Asian guy and the girl with the wavy hair. As they were standing there, the model guy greeted the girl, calling her Tani and asked 'how she and Junior were doing'. Danny snorted quietly.

Justin Willman came out and made a spiel that Danny zoned out on most of it until he started talking about the day's challenge. "From 1953 with his breakthrough commercial success to his death in 1977 rock 'n' roll was changed forever by a man from Tupelo, Mississippi named Elvis Presley. Ever since his first record, which included his hit songs Hound Dog and Blue Suede Shoes, fans of Elvis have been some of the most vocal of any recording act that has ever been." 

"Clearly he's not ever seen the One Direction fandom." Danny muttered under his breath. The guy next to him, the model guy, glanced over at him and smirked. 

"His image has spawned a whole host of impersonators that come in all shapes and sizes and span every look he ever had. Today you're going to be making cupcakes for the International Elvis Impersonators Club, the biggest club of it's size with over 500 members. They're having their yearly Elvis Day celebration and need cupcakes for the event." Justin explained. "First up is the taste challenge, where you'll make one cupcake that will taste so good the judges will proclaim you the hunk'a hunk'a burnin' love. It's well documented that Elvis loved peanut butter and banana sandwiches, so for your first cupcake, you must include peanut butter and banana in some way. You have 45 minutes to make a delicious cupcake for the judges, and your time starts...now." 

Steve raced back over to the station he was sharing with Kamekona and grinned at him. "Elvis Presley impersonators. What do you think? What should we do? I'm thinking maybe a banana cupcake and do some peanut butter frosting. Keep it simple." 

Kamekona looked at him with a blank look. "I'm the baker here, brah." He pointed out. "I let you take the lead and go up front, but you're the one who works for me."

"Ok, ok. You're right." Steve held his hands up. "I'm just thinking..." 

"We'll go home first if we do that." Kamekona cut him off. "Nah we'll do a chocolate cupcake with a banana filling and peanut butter icing." 

"Sure, sure. Sounds good. What do you want me to do?" Steve asked, rubbing his hands together. 

"Make the filling and icing." Kamekona pointed at him. "Don't fuck it up by trying to make it yours, do it plain and simple." 

"We gotta wow 'em, 'Kona." Steve said. "We gotta..." 

"They'll love it, brah. Calm down." Kamekona shook his head and walked off to get what he needed. 

"So here's what I'm thinking." Danny looked over at Grace as he got ingredients together. "We do our spice cupcakes, and change the normal icing with some kind of a peanut butter...banana..."

"Like a swirl sort of thing." She suggested.

He snapped his fingers in a weird snap and point, grinning. "Exactly. You're good at that, so I'll make the cake and you do the icing." 

"Got it, Danno." She turned to get what she needed, digging out the ingredients and two sized pastry bags so she could swirl the icing. 

"Bakers, I'd like to introduce you to your guest judge." Justin called out a little while later. "He's the head of the International Elvis Impersonators club, a life long fan of the king...Jerry Ortega." A large man dressed as Elvis swaggered out and Danny watched with wide eyes.

"Holy crap." He mumbled to himself. He snapped out of it when Grace nudged him and he went back to work as Justin talked briefly to Jerry. 

Sometime later, Justin called out that they had five minutes, and Danny freaked out, taking his cupcakes out of the oven. "Do you think they're baked through?" He asked.

"They have to be good enough, Danno." Grace pointed out. "We can't let them bake any longer, they have to cool first so we can frost them." 

"Right, ok." Danny wiped his hands over the front of the apron he had on. "You're right." 

Steve looked at Kamekona as he started icing the four cupcakes (three for the judges, one for display for the cameras). "You're sure this is going to be good enough?" 

"Brah, you keep disparaging my recipes like that, you can find yourself another partner." Kamekona stared at him.

"I'm not, I'm not. I swear." Steve said quickly. "I'm here for you, you know. I really want this money for your shop." 

"You want to be on tv to get more dates." Kamekona replied easily, not looking over at him as he began spreading the icing on their cupcakes.

"That's not true! I mean, I've been..." Steve muttered.

"I see the way you eyein' that haole over there." Kamekona cut him off. "You play your cards right, you never know what will happen." 

"I am not eyein' the Jersey boy." Steve disagreed. "Come on. I mean he's not even my type."

"I never said the Jersey boy." Kamekona said, smirking. "Chin's from the mainland, brah." 

Steve fought down a blush as he realized what happened. "Funny, just...ice the cupcakes, jackass." 

As they lined up in front of the judges, Danny felt nervous. Grace had assured him the judges would love the cupcake, but he just didn't know, sometimes the judges could be fickle. "Danny, why don't you go first." 

He cleared his throat quietly. "This is a spice cake cupcake and we made a banana-peanut butter swirl icing, done by my wonderful teenage daughter, Grace." 

"Your daughter did that icing? Looks good, man." Steve mumbled to him.

Danny grinned widely. "Taught her all I know...the rest she learned by herself." 

Candice spoke up first and gave him favorable comments and then Florian said something Danny was pretty sure was a good thing. Last Jerry looked up, licking his thumb. "I have to say man, that cupcake definitely was not in the gateau." He looked really proud of the pun and Danny didn't have the heart to say anything about it, so he just flashed a pleased smile. 

Steve went next, flashing a smile that had all the judges a little mystified. "We did a chocolate cupcake with a banana filling and peanut butter icing." 

Danny glanced over at him and wanted to make a comment...so he did. "Really? That's kind of simple." He pointed out quietly. 

"I just did what I was told." Steve shrugged. 

Candice said as much about it being simple, but she couldn't find fault in it. Florian made a comment Danny didn't pay much attention to. Jerry smiled at Steve. "Chocolate's my favorite, and this was a really good chocolate cupcake, made me want to put on my blue suede shoes and go out dancin' with my hound dog." 

Danny hoped he ran out of Elvis puns soon. 

In the end, the younger couple went home, Danny thought their names were Tani and Junior or something. Their cupcake was 'bland' and 'none of the flavors stood out'. Danny would've felt sorry for them, but quite frankly, just being on the show would get them a lot of attention. 

The second round was all about taste and presentation, so Danny knew he had to bring it with three cupcakes, especially because they had to be inspired by Elvis and Danny was more a Bon Jovi fan than of the King. "So, Gracie, what should we do?" 

"What about our vanilla bean cupcake with a dark chocolate filling and a blueberry compote on top?" She suggested. "We could make some gum paste blue shoes to put on the top." 

"Awesome, good. Blue suede shoes." He agreed. "We could do a tequila sunrise cupcake, inspired by Viva Las Vegas. Maybe do some gum paste signs that say Viva Las Vegas." 

"All you." Grace shrugged. "What about for the last one?" 

"Mexican chocolate with a horchata icing." Danny decided. "We can say it's for Burnin' Love. Do some poured sugar flames." 

"For all you say you're not an Elvis fan, you sure do seem to know a lot of his songs." Grace pointed out, grinning.

Danny tweaked her nose, knowing she hated it. "You don't have to be a fan to know Elvis songs." 

"If you say so, Danno." Grace swatted at him. "Put me to work." 

Steve nudged Kamekona. "What are we doin'? We have to step it up, the judges didn't much like our last efforts." 

"They liked 'em just fine." Kamekona disagreed. "Slow and steady wins the race, brah. We'll do a blue velvet cupcake with coconut icing and a fondant mic, then we can do a strawberry cupcake with a vanilla icing and do a fondant bouquet of roses." 

"What's that for?" Steve made a face. Kamekona eyed him. 

"Love Me Tender, brah." Kamekona said simply. "Our last one will be a dark chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter icing, a banana drizzle, and a butter cream flowers." 

Steve raised an eyebrow. "That's very decadent." 

"When you're lonely, you want something decadent to hide the pain." Kamekona walked off to get started and Steve blinked slowly, before he decided to let it go and get to work himself.

Chin and Kono went home. It was between them and Danny and Grace, because Danny put a little too much tequila in the sunrise cupcakes and didn't get one of the shoes on one of the other cupcakes, but Chin and Kono left off a cupcake entirely and another of them didn't have icing on it. They walked out bickering (well Kono was bickering, Chin just looked stoic). 

Justin went on the spiel about the last round and that they'd have four baking assistants and a carpenter to give them their display and Steve raced back to his station and looked at Kamekona. "What are we going to do for the display?" 

Kamekona waved a hand and walked off to talk to the baking assistants and give them their assignments. "Not my thing, you handle it." 

Steve gawked at him before turning to the carpenter. Justin? Jason? Something. "Ok uh...well Elvis did that really popular concert in Hawaii, so let's pay homage to that. I want a stage with a mic stand on it, some hibiscus around, a grass skirt around it."

"How big?" He asked.

"Uh..." Steve trailed off. "Big enough for a thousand cupcakes." 

"Gotcha." The guy walked off and Steve went to see what Kamekona wanted him to do. 

Danny looked over as Steve passed by his station and grinned at him. "Better give up now, our display and cupcakes are going to kick your ass." 

Steve stopped and looked at him. "You sound sure of yourself." 

"I am sure of myself. We're making adjustments, and our display...perfection." Danny made a kissing motion to his fingers and Steve pointedly didn't look at his lips.

"What is it?" He asked, instead. 

He snorted. "Like you'll find out. You'll see it when it's finished." 

"Fair enough, fair enough. I'll leave you to it, you need all the help you can get." Steve walked off.

"You know what, McGarrett I'm going to make you eat those words!" Danny called.

"When we win, I'll bring you as my plus one to the event." Steve called back. 

"I'm holding you to that." Danny said. 

Grace eyed him. "Did you just get yourself a date during this competition?" 

Danny turned toward her to disagree vehemently, then he stopped and thought about it, his eyes slowly widening. "Oh my God!"

"Well at least you won't die alone and bitter." Grace offered.

"Thanks, monkey." Danny deadpanned.

Steve and Kamekona won. It wasn't really a shock. Their display was amazing, and blew Danny and Grace's mini scale room from Graceland out of the water. In retrospect, Danny figured doing a room from a house everyone thought was tacky anyway was probably a stupid idea and he accepted the loss gracefully (although he did mutter quietly to himself until he got it out of his system) and went to congratulate Steve. 

Steve turned and beamed at him. "I meant what I said about you coming with, although you'll probably just have to help serve cupcakes." 

Danny couldn't help but smile at him. "I'm ok with that."


End file.
